World News Quick Take

Agencies

EGYPT

Train derails, 19 killed

A train carrying recruits to an army camp derailed in a Cairo suburb on Tuesday, killing 19 people and injuring 107, a health ministry spokesman said. The train was traveling from Upper Egypt to Cairo when it derailed in the Giza neighborhood of Badrashin, a security source said, adding that the train was a military vehicle carrying conscripted youth on their way to an army camp.

UNITED STATES

Heads found at airport

Investigators probing a shipment of 18 human heads intercepted at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport have determined they came from bodies donated for scientific research and were being transported for disposal, officials said on Tuesday. US Customs agents discovered the grisly package on Monday, which was shipped to Chicago from Italy shortly before Christmas. As the shipment’s paperwork was not in order, agents confiscated the heads and sent them to the Cook County Medical Examiner for safekeeping, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said. The heads, which had been used by a medical research facility in Rome, were properly embalmed, wrapped and labeled when they arrived at the airport, said Mary Paleologos, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.

CYPRUS

Police get bomb surprise

A man triggered a major security scare in Cyprus on Wednesday when he walked into a police station carrying a bomb he found on his driveway, saying he wanted officers to examine it. Police said the 33-year old man discovered a suspicious device on the back window of his car and decided to take it to a police station in the capital Nicosia for further scrutiny by experts. Police discovered it was a makeshift bomb which had failed to go off, triggering the evacuation of the complex. “He obviously didn’t know what it was,” a police source said.

VATICAN

Archbishop a cover boy

Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s private secretary, dubbed “Gorgeous George” by the Italian media, is now a real-life cover boy after featuring on the cover of Vanity Fair. The cover on the Italian edition of the magazine shows the 56-year-old smiling above a headline that reads “Father Georg — It’s not a sin to be beautiful.” The magazine calls Ganswein “The George Clooney of St Peter’s” and says it dedicated a cover story to honor his recent promotion to archbishop and as recognition of his growing power in the Church. A spokeswoman for the magazine said Ganswein was not interviewed for the article and did not pose for the photo, which was a close-up of an existing picture.

UNITED STATES

Marine admits desecration

A Marine who pleaded guilty to urinating on the corpse of a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan will likely be demoted one rank under a plea agreement, although a military judge called for a much harsher sentence. Staff Sergeant Edward Deptola pleaded guilty on Wednesday to multiple charges at court-martial, including that of violating orders by desecrating remains and posing for photographs with the corpses; and dereliction of duty by failing to properly supervise junior marines. The judge, Lieutenant Colonel Nicole Hudspeth, said she would have sentenced him to six months confinement, a US$5,000 fine, demotion to private and a bad-conduct discharge. However, she was bound by terms of the plea agreement the sergeant reached with military prosecutors.